Damages: Sort of Like a Family

"I'm so sick of your bullsh*t." - Ellen

And there it was. The moment that I wasn't necessarily waiting for, but definitely was expecting. Ellen strikes back. She went from being timid to bold enough to tell off Patty -- the woman who made her that way. However, despite that and some other stellar moments in this episode, I'm officially frustrated with Damages. It really is one of the best things on TV right now, but it has also knocked off Lost as the biggest culprit in terms of the questions to answers ratio. The one silver lining is that it's a cable show and rather than wait a full 22, I'll hopefully get some results in the final three episodes.

I'm not saying lay it all out. I still want a good finale... but give me something. It's no fun when a show of this caliber spends a whole hour doing nothing but confirming assumptions that I've had for weeks now.

So Ellen finally spoke her mind after she went out on her own and uncovered a lead that Patty never even knew existed. And what did she get? Fired. It was to be expected as was Patty's end of episode phone call to Ellen, expressing her satisfaction with Ellen's findings. Will she "un-fire" Ellen as she did with Tom? I would assume so, but I'm sure Ellen will have conditions. Especially being put back on the Frobisher case. Initially, Tom commented that Ellen isn't Patty's kind of lawyer. After all, her hiring was only a set-up to get to certain parties. Maybe she is more like Patty though. David certainly won't be happy if that's what happens.

At the end of all this, what do I know that's new? Well... nothing really. In the present tense, flash-forward type scenes, I heard all sorts of things that most people have already discussed. Ellen thinks Patty tried to kill her and Tom seems to be jumping on board. What's the deal with Tom though? Why has Ellen scrapped Hollis Nye and gone with Tom instead? Is he trustworthy?
Regardless, Tom found some trace amounts of blood in the apartment. So maybe he is in the dark too. The clean-up crew wasn't 100% thorough. Now even though Patty was implicated with that one shot that showed some blood droplets on her shoe, that was a bit vague. Didn't Tom find signs of a struggle at Patty's beach house? Broken glass and picture frames; a scotch stain on the wall? Patty could have been attacked too, no? However, my gut still says Patty is behind the hit on Ellen and that David's murder is an unrelated incident. Why else throw in the story about obsessive Lyla if it isn't going to go anywhere?

Now as I said earlier, there were some stellar scenes in this episode. I loved the deposition, seeing Frobisher and Patty square off. Danson and Close are both fantastic and those scenes really showcased it. The only question I had was how Patty would get Frobisher to explode on camera. He saved himself by going public with the events of 1983, so the divorce (and Patty's inside knowledge of it) provided an easy (and story wise, convenient) out for Patty to get under Art's skin. It did become a bit much when she used about every marriage related metaphor though.

In the end, what did I learn from the deposition? Nothing I didn't know already. Arthur played stupid about Gregory Malina though. I thought he might try and act as if he knew him and come "clean" the same way he did about Virgina.

So after all that, what new questions can I add to the list?

• Who was taking photos when Ellen met with Moore? My initial thought? Katie. She watched the confession tape and now she's helping Ellen by tracking her without anyone's knowledge.
• Will Moore's old S.E.C. colleague testify that Moore wasn't the probing investigator that everyone thought he was?
• What happens when Frobisher finds out that Ray, the one person he still trusts, is lying to him?
• Does Patty's creepy doorman have any connection to the attempted murder?
• Is Tom just playing dumb? Or does he know more about Patty's whereabouts and intentions?

I think, at this point, that one of the few things that will justify so many questions like this will be to find out that Patty somehow has a deeper involvement with Frobisher. I honestly don't think that will happen, but it would tie it together... you know? As of right now, it feels like whatever is going on with Ellen and Patty in the present tense is an unrelated matter and the Frobisher case was simply what brought them together. Short of being involved with the man that she's fighting so hard to bring down, what could Patty possibly be hiding that would cause her to kill the people around her and flee the state?